[MGSA-L] Welsh soldiers step back to 1974 in Cyprus’ buffer zone

John Maas xaxatat at gmail.com
Wed Jul 20 13:51:03 PDT 2011


I forwarded the link below to Geoff Manaugh of BLDGBLOG and he reposted it along with some other interesting aspects to the story that he found.

http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/welsh-soldiers-are-currently.html


On Jul 18, 11, at 5:40 AMJul 18, 11, June Samaras wrote:

Welsh soldiers step back to 1974 in Cyprus’ buffer zone

   by Steven Impey, Wales On Sunday
   Jul 17 2011


IT has been a city district that time has forgotten for 37 years.

The dried-up ink bottles in a shop window, the almost untouched Toyota
Corolla with 38 miles on the clock in the car showroom and the posters
of ’70s fashion could be part of the set for a Hollywood disaster
movie.

Yet these exclusive images show a genuine part of Cyprus’ capital
Nicosia that has been abandoned since Turkey invaded the island in
1974.

They were taken by Sergeant Ian Forsyth as part of a project now being
undertaken by Welsh soldiers to catalogue everything in the area of
the city that is part of a buffer zone established by the UN to end
the fighting.

The zone stretches across the entire breadth of the island, covering
134 square miles, separating the Greek and Turkish parts of Cyprus.

On one side, it is bordered by barbed-wire fencing, concrete walls,
watchtowers, anti-tank ditches, and minefields installed by the Turks.
Although 10,000 people live in the zone, largely in villages, the
buffer zone in Nicosia is largely abandoned.

Cataloguing its contents is now the responsibility of Corporal Kelvin
Roberts, 32, of Tanyfron, Wrexham.

Cpl Roberts of 3rd Battalion The Royal Welsh, who previously served in
Iraq and Afghanistan, has found a fascinating trove of items frozen in
time for nearly four decades.

“You just come across these amazing things every day,” said Kelvin,
who is married to Natalie, 27. “I’ve been to nearly every single one
of the shops, making sure the area is secure and making a list of
what’s here.

“The people had to leave their homes and shops pretty quickly, leaving
everything behind. There’s children’s clothing, boxes of unused shoes.
Of course, all this stuff still belongs to the people who left it.”

Some of the things lying in vacant blocks also include brand new cars
made in 1974 that have been left in hollow shopping centres.

“There’s a Toyota Corolla 1974 which has 38 miles on the clock,” said
Kelvin. “When you open the doors you get hit with a fresh smell of
untouched leather and the plastic wrapping remains on the inside of
the doors. It’s a bit spooky.”

The buffer zone extends to 7km in some parts of the island and shrinks
to just over three metres in other parts, such as Spear Alley.

Kelvin said: “It’s called that because the two armies would attach
knives to poles and stretch across to attack each other – they were
that close.

“This tour is unlike anything else I’ve done. In Iraq it was close
contact fighting all the time, in Afghanistan I was based in Kabul
helping train the Afghan National Army. But instead of carrying a gun
here, it’s replaced with a bottle of water.”

Most of the Welsh soldiers are based in the UN Protected Area (UNPA),
near to the abandoned Nicosia International Airport, which has been
frozen in time for nearly four decades.

A Cyprus Airways Trident Airliner with strips of metal and paint
flaking into sun-baked powder still sits eerily on the cracked tarmac.

Apart from Welsh soldiers from 3rd Battalion The Royal Welsh, based in
Maindy Barracks, Cardiff, and REME, there are others from 104 Regiment
Royal Artillery (V) in Newport.

About 50 soldiers from Wales are supporting 3 Royal Anglians (V) whose
Regimental Headquarters is based at the Ledra Palace Hotel, a former
five-star luxury building made famous by Richard Burton and Elizabeth
Taylor’s many visits there.

Room 301, or the Burton and Taylor room as it’s become known, has
followed a long tradition of being handed over to each Quartermaster
of the regiment which takes the lead on British involvement in Op
Tosca.

Major Chris Wright, Quartermaster for 3 Royal Anglians (V), said:
“There was written evidence they stayed here, and on various
occasions.

“We had a flood back in May and the floor had to be ripped out. It was
the original carpet which has been in place for nearly 40 years. The
room was totally drenched and ruined. The guy who came out to replace
the carpet had been in the same room 45 years ago.

“When I first moved in, I thought it was jinxed because there were
hundreds and hundreds of bees outside and I had to get in pest control
and then it was flooded.

“It is slightly bizarre staying in room 301 because it was the best
room of it’s time, you can tell that from the black marble bathroom
and impressive views of the Nicosia.”

Private Craig Roberts, a TA reservist whose day-to-day job back in the
UK is financial consultant for Capital Finance at Canary Wharf,
London, said clashes did happen.

The 22 year old, of Penrhyn Bay, Llandudno, said: “Mostly, it’ll be
the Turkish or Cypriot National Guard doing something like throwing
stones or hurling insults or trying to move their observation post
forward.

“We just try and speak to them, try to get them to calm down, return
things to the status quo and if that fails we have to call in other
assets like the UN Police or crash out our quick reaction force.”

Read More http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2011/07/17/welsh-soldiers-step-back-to-1974-in-cyprus-buffer-zone-91466-29067412/#ixzz1SQNodZn5


==============================
June Samaras
2020 Old Station Rd
Streetsville,Ontario
Canada L5M 2V1
Tel : 905-542-1877
E-mail : june.samaras at gmail.com
_______________________________________________
List-Info: https://maillists.uci.edu/mailman/listinfo/mgsa-l




More information about the MGSA-L mailing list